OREANDA-NEWS. October 25, 2010. At Bogatyr Coal, LLP there finished the series of professional mastership competitions devoted to Miners’ Day. The first to match their strength against others were the diesel locomotive operators, OPE-1s and PE-2Ms traction unit operators. Then the bucket-wheel excavator operators and shovel excavator operators were competing for the right to be the best in profession.

I will tell you how the bucket-wheel operators were struggling for the right to be the best in their profession.

On regular days there are never so many people in the coal face, and moreover at the excavator. On the competition day the picture was absolutely different. There were 18 participants from six excavator crews, plus their assistants, and also the organizers of the event, the section managers, and mass media representatives… In short, it was crowded. It elated the spirits, and the competitors got the additional passion.

But the Head of Bogatyr Mine Coal Complex Ibrahim Dosmukhambetov was a bit nervous. He had a ground for that. It turned out to be it was time to start, but there were almost no cars for coal loading. They hardly found two short trains. In the past years there were enough cars, and every crew had to work in full to load a short train consisting of fourteen cars. So unexpectedly the production problems barely defeated the competition.

The Complex Head explained that almost for a month the railroad limited the feed of cars to Bogatyr Mine in ordered quantities. It broke the adjusted rhythm of work, and put the fulfillment of annual plans on coal production and sales in jeopardy.

As a result the competition organizers made the wise solution: every crew would be loading four-five cars. There was something positive in it: the competition went in a very orderly matter and quickly.

Evgeniy Tarnavskiy and Vladimir Fedotov were the first to run the bucket-wheel excavator #1145. At the time when they, one after another, were loading rail cars with coal, the operator-electrician Vladimir Khivuk was taking the exam on the electric part of the machine. His examiner was Deputy Chief Engineer for Job Safety of Bogatyr Mine Vladimir Ovsyannikov, who is known by all as an uncompromising person. Nobody expected any indulgence. At the same time his namesake did not lose head and fluently answered five complicated questions on job safety rules when exploiting electric installations of customers. As soon as the operator-electrician Khivuk left the recreation room of the excavator crew, where the theoretical part of the competition took part, when Vladimir Ovsyannikov shared his impression on the examinee:

- The guy has the deep knowledge, good memory, and also the solid nature. He did not falter because of the difficult questions. If everyone could do that…

His colleagues, Tarnavskiy and Fedotov, did not let him down. They showed the good time, which they spent for loading five rail cars.

As soon as the short signal on loading completion sounded, the operator seats, both of a bucket-wheel and loading – were with no delay (it was prohibited to stop the train loading) taken by the other crew – Yuriy Alyokhin and Vadim Kocherga, and the examiner’s chair was occupied by the operator-electrician Sergey Grigoriev. And the process went on again…

Here are the buckets of the bucket-wheel managed by Senior Operator Yuriy Alyokhin entered the face with its teeth and scooped the black coal mass. When it fell onto the conveyor, at full pelt it went to the loading facility and soon by the intense flow it was dumped into the rail car. This is when the loading operator Vadim Kocherga took his rights. The result would then depend on his expert work. Vadim would have to not only watch how this flow would be distributed in a rail car, but also that coal would not be spilled onto rail tracks. A good loading operator has an instant reaction. Vadim Kocherga is among them. He virtuously manages the gate, gives the signal to the locomotive unit operator like clockwork, at the same time carefully watching the instrument readings. Less than a minute – and the car is filled in with coal up to the top. Igrahim Dosmukhambetov watching the work gave a comment again:

- The loading in going literally, - he explained, - you see how accurately the coal is laid in the car center, evenly distributed by the car height.

It took about 23 minutes to load the first short train consisting of fourteen cars, which accepted about one thousand tons of coal.

- The result is very good, - the Head of the Coal Complex of Bogatyr Mine summarized, - in the usual regime operators load the train for 15-16 minutes in average, today the valuable minutes, despite their hurry, were spent for the shift change of the crews.

…It is not simple to become a competitor participant. Not everyone wishing is awarded with such honor. The verdict is given by the collective. That is why, the composition is very professional. Everyone is a worthy opponent. Let us take Senior Operator Galymzhan Ormanbekov, as an example. He is the winner of the best Bucket-Wheel Operator nomination. This time he acts as an operator-electrician. Or Igor Kornilov, the operator-electrician. Igor, one can say, is a permanent competition participant. The current competition is the third one in his working biography. The last but one year he was acknowledged as the Best Operator-Electrician. The other competition participants can be placed on the same level. Victor Vostrikov, Sarsenbay Zhunusov, Gennady Martynov, Pavel Nakonechny, who, by the way, had been the competition winner in the past years.

The following twenty minutes passed unnoticeably, while the other crews were competing. Eventually the command sounded: to finish the competition!

…Thus, in the tense struggle for the right to be called the best the competition among bucket-wheel excavator operators finished. Going back to their working places, the competition participants did not find out who the winner was. It would become known only after weighing cars and determining the quality of loading.

Everybody got together at the flights of stairs of the excavator. They lively discuss the competition, make jokes. They take pictures for memory. And it is great. Because the time flies unnoticeably, and tomorrow, when the competition participants will be turning the leaves of their family photo albums, it will be pleasant for them to revive the memories of those unforgettable minutes.

PS: On the following day the competition results became known. Here they are, “Best in Profession”.

Among the bucket-wheel operators – Victor Vostrikov, Sergey Lyashkevich, Evgeniy Tarnavskiy.

Among the loading operators – Vladimir Fedotov, Mikhail Chergeiko, Vadim Kocherga.

Among the operators-electricians – Vladimir Khivuk, Sergey Sychev, Galymzhan Ormanov.